Beyond not feeling represented or seen by my doctors, the persistence of a binary understanding of sex and gender in the medical field has failed to account for the way I, and patients like me, deserve and need to be treated.

I began to feel like being fat was my fault, that it was a personal failure. Eventually, my only goal was to be thin, thinner, thinnest. Even when I lost weight, however, I still couldn’t please my critics.

On April 2, Lizzy Martinez, 17, was pulled from her fifth-period class at Braden River High School, in Bradenton, Florida and sent to the dean’s office—because her nipples were allegedly “distracting” other students.

I recognize that discussing any intimate health topic (or vaginas in general) makes some people uncomfortable. But any worry I have about making people uncomfortable is overshadowed by my desire to advocate for all of the ladies I know suffering from endometriosis and to provide the information and insight I wish I had found years ago.

As women used words like “menstruation” and “heavy flow” while describing the humiliating and degrading experience of having insufficient sanitary products in prison, the nine, all-male members of the Arizona legislature’s Committee on Military, Veterans and Regulatory Affairs bristled and shifted in their seats.

Many women at women’s colleges dress in a way that transcends gender, in ways that do not align with societal expectations of how women are supposed to look. Our individual styles go beyond gendered expectations.

Over the summer, researchers published a study that offered proof of a phenomenon in American black communities that has existed since slavery: By being perceived as more mature, black girls fall victim to what researchers are calling a “perception trap,” and are treated negatively as a result.

By now, most young feminist are aware of the well-documented efforts students have made to push back against sexist dress codes. Administrators and teachers across the country continue to shame their female students for wearing “revealing” tank tops and shorts, claiming their exposed skin “distracts” male students. These dress codes, young feminists claim, are an affront to feminist progress...

I was in seventh grade, a twelve-year-old pudgy, buck-toothed, frizzy-haired, acne-prone girl totally oblivious to my supposed physical flaws and shortcomings. I lived in my own sheltered bubble. I went to school, did homework when I got back home, and then played in the backyard with our neighbor’s kid. I went to the library with my mother a lot. Perhaps most informatively, though, I lacked exposure to most media. I watched TV only once a week and seldom watched movies (except for the occasional viewing of Dumbo). This fostered a sense of cluelessness about societal expectations of beauty.

Our society very clearly communicates that pretty is everything. Pretty is skipping breakfast. Pretty is counting calories. Pretty is losing weight (and not gaining it back). Pretty is being told by friends that “you look so skinny.”

Since I began to swim competitively at the age of eight, I canât remember a time when I wasnât competing against other women. I competed against the other girls to be better, faster, and stronger....

“There’s beauty in everything and everyone, and that shouldn’t be decided by the media or anyone,” Dayna Altman — a 24-year-old eating disorder survivor, graduate student, and mental health activist from the National Eating Disorder Association (NEDA) — told me in a recent interview.

Ever since reading the work of authors such as bell hooks, Simone de Beauvoir, and Naomi Wolf, I have dismissed the concept of physical beauty as a trivial social construct. The mainstream narrative o...

When I turned twelve, I started faithfully straightening my hair every single week. By the time I was fourteen years old, therefore, I had straightened my hair at least one hundred and four times. At ...

Patrice Brown, a fourth-grade teacher in Atlanta who is known for being at the center of the hashtag #TeacherBae, is being criticized in the media â not for her body of work, but rather her body at ...

To My Middle School Principal (And to School Administrators Alike),
I've observed from afar, with horror and disgust, as you've punished young girls for their school attire. Nearly every day my littl...

Whether youâre a Tumblr fanatic, an avid Twitter user, or Instagram-obsessed like I am, itâs probably safe to assume youâve seen posts captioned with the hashtag "#fitspiration" come across your...